Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

wynnvegas

Hi Tilly / Froggy / US,

God - it's been a fortnight already! It turns out time flies even when you're not having fun!!

As a brief summary, we're still on our third BTL place with the fourth due to complete this Friday. We do have our first tenants in though!! We should have all four properties rented by mid-April. Property 1 will get its first tenant on March 28th after an £8,000 refit and property 3 will hopefully be tenanted on 16th April after what is looking like an £11,000 refit - £5,000 over budget already and we haven't even started...

Properties 2 and, thus far, 4, look like they are ready to welcome tenants right off the bat. Property 2 has had tenants for nearly a week now and they are talking about being long-term tenants which is good. They have even painted, wallpapered and decorated to their taste and the place looks brilliant. I didn't think it looked bad at all before but they've already done a great job.

The holiday budget has been stretched a wee bit and now stands at £11,000 all in. Hotels are now booked and flights were booked a couple of weeks ago - had a look yesterday and they have gone down a total of £60p/p so BA aren't in my good books just now!

Moyra got herself a new car as she got bored then annoyed with the old one and that apparently needed replacing immediately. She now has the wee Mazda2 that she's always wanted (in bright green no less!) but that was another £10,000 outlay. It's been an expensive 2012 so far. I'm really looking forward to mid-April when we stop hemmoraging money and can start planning the many and varied repayment plans. BTL 5 may have to wait a couple of months until I am happy enough with our money situation - all these unknowns and estimates are doing my head in!

Glad things are going well. Afraid I haven't had a minute to myself in the last month or so but I'll get caught up soon hopefully.

Cheers,

Billy

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning Billy, so glad to hear from you - I was wondering whether we had to arrange a MFW trip 'up north' to check on you:)

Anyway, as you seem to be in the cash splashing zone, I have my eye on a lovely pair of shoes - you'd never notice:rotfl:

Pleased to hear things are going well. I hadn't seen the holiday plan post so must have missed that but great to hear the progress.

Best wishes Tilly x

Jock_Tight

Morning Billy.

You dont do things by 1/2 do you

Best of luck on your BTL journey!

Jock


PS we are looking to go back to Vegas in 2013 to celebrate being mortgage free, our 10th wedding aniversary and I'll be 40 so might be picking your brains re tips for Vegas hotels/flights etc.

misscousinitt

Thanks for the update...its all getting very exciting now. Great news on getting tenants in so quickly.

Wishing you all the best.

MCI

wynnvegas

Hi Tilly,

just so long as you're not shoe shopping at the Wynn, we'll probably be alright. It's a massive shift just throwing thousands at plumbers / electricians / DIY shoppes etc after many years of being properly MSE. I keep reminding myself that we may have shelled out £80,000 and may now have mortgage debt worth £280,000 but we've actually bought ourselves close to £90,000 of equity right away. I just hope my calculations prove correct!!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hiya Jock,

There are definitely days that I regret not just kicking back and relaxing having gotten shot of the mortgage. This is a lot more work than I had bargained for.

Loving the countdown! Everyone needs a countdown in the last stretch...

Ask away. We should be able to provide a few pointers. Moyra's first instruction to anyone considering a holiday / honeymoon / celebration / weekend is to head to Vegas so you're off to a good start!!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Thanks MCI,

Going round to meet the first tenants today, picking up the keys to BTL4 this afternoon and running the penultimate day of BTL1 tonight ahead of the tenant moving in on Wednesday.

Cheers,

Billy

abouttimetoo

Hi Billy, how's things going?

Hope you're well

Regards
ATT

wynnvegas

Hey ATT,

Well-ish! Work is stupidly busy and a bit on the depressing side at the moment. Charities are stupidly busy but very worthwhile and progressing along nicely. Houses are taking up a ridiculous amount of time (who the hell wallpapers ceilings!!??) but there's light at the end of the tunnel there as well. Roll on the end of April when life might just take on some semblance of normalcy again!!

Might then be able to update the ol' diary...

Cheers,

Billy

abouttimetoo

Hi Billy, great to hear from you

Sorry to hear work is causing you grief, it must be that time of year as i've read a lot of posts recently on a similiar theme and I think I've just had one of the worst work months ever

It sounds like a bit of light is appearing in the BTL tunnel though which is good, I hope when this next bit is over you are going to allow yourself a small bit of breathing space and lets things stabilise before you ready yourself for the next push?

PS, lol to wallpapering ceilings, I love seeing stuff like that and though I rarely watch TV I have a soft spot for 'homes under the hammer' which is on BBC1 in the mornings, if you've not seen it its about people who buy properties at auction and what they do with them. You see some amazing sights that would put your ceiling to shame, certainly not least the extension I saw last month that had been built so low that the presenter could not even stand up in it :rotfl:I know you like the 'have you seen this' thread on the house forum here so think you'd like this programme! Typically they cover about 4 properties per programme and it's also really interesting to see what is possible in terms of renovation when the professional BTL'ers get their hands on the properties and also the price they are able to do it for!

I was up your neck of the woods recently, loitering around Edinburgh and Dunfermilne way. All I can say is brrrrrrrrr, I'm not in Scotland for another month or so hope to not be packing the thermal underwear next time

Regards
ATT